Railboad



ALEXANDER HAY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILROAD.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,717, dated March 19, 1861.

4all being obvious modifications of the same general plan. Figs. 7, 8, and 9, represent the manner of securing and supporting the rails at their joints.

My invention has for its object mainly the construction of city or streetrail'roads, but may be adapted to rail roads in a more extended sense than this limitation would seem to apply.

The purpose of my invention is, vto avoid the necessity of tearing up pavements, and.

digging up the streets of cities or towns, for laying down or embedding stringers or ties, upon which to support the rails. And the nature of my invention consists first in supporting a broad flanged rail upon the natural or paved surface of the street with Wood or similar elastic material interposed between said flanges, and the pavement, and holding them together, and to the road bed without the use of cross ties, as will be described. And my invention further consists in strengthening the joints of the rails, by a. splice piece that is clasped, and held in place, by a portion of the flanges of the rails, which are bent or turned under for that purpose, thus avoiding the necessity of keys, rivets, or other fastenings separate from the rails or splice piece.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings.

Figs. l, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 show modifications of rails constructed after my general plan, for street rail-roads. They are all constructed with broad flanges on each side of the tread to give them a broad support on the pavement, or other prepared surface of the street. The outer edges of these .broad flanges are turned down as shown at A, for the purpose of holding underneath the flanges, and between them and the naturalsurface of the street longitudinally arsurface of the street, which is so exceedingly objectionable and annoying in cities and towns.

In Figs. 3, 4, 5, a narrow `channel is opened outimmediately under the line of support or tread of the wheels over the rails, for the admission of that part of the rail which is the thickestbut in these figures the saine supports B are interposed between the flanges and the pavement and the same turned down fianges. or edges A, so as to prevent the plank or cushion A from getting out of place. By this construction the tops of the rails are less elevated, and hence more easily crossed by carriages, while in those in Figs. l, 2, and l0, though as valuable in all other respects, and probably more so, would have this objection to a greater extent, but one that cannot be entirely avoided.

I have shown two forms of grooves or re- 4'cesses for the fianges of the car wheels to `move in, both constructed with a view of facilitating the passage of ordinary carriage wheels over them. In those represented at Figs. l, 5, l0, they are' so narrow that an ordinary wheel cannot enter them, and hence cannot be damaged by them. In those 2, 3, 4t, one side at least of the recess is so sloped or beveled off as to allow ordinary carriage wheels to freely pass out of the recesses should they enter therein.

The broadpflanges to the rails perform several very necessary purposes: rst, they make an easy ascent and descent over the tread or highest point of the rail; second, they afford a permanent support to the rail, notwithstanding they are not fastened to anything embedded in the ground; third, they form a bridge for supporting that part of the rail upon which the rolling stock runs, and finally they make an excellent broad tram-way for the wheels of ordinary car-- riages to run upon.

In laying down a street railroad after this general plan, the plank or cushion B, is laid down, and bolted or pinned to the natural surface. Upon these planks or cushions the rails are laid, and the road is finished without disturbing the street, or digging it up. Or the plank or its substitute may be laid down loose, and the rails put upon them, and the rails bolted o-r pinned to the pavement, which holds the plank in place, it being retained in a kind of trough, formed by turning down the edges A of the rails. F ig. l0, shows a form of rail laid down in substantially the same manner, where a greater height of rail is required to carry greater loads than ordinary street roads carryand where the crossing of the track is not so general a thing as in streets of cities or towns.v

In Figs. 7, S, and 9, I have shown theV manner in which I strengthen the joints of the rail by a splice plate that, is held in place solely by its own shape, in connection with the peculiar Shape of the folds, or bent portions of the ends of the rails. The form of the splice plate is shown at D, Fig. 8, andl also in position in Fig. 9. The ends of the rails are so folded down as to form a tapered loop, into which the tapering ends of the splice piece is inserted as shown in Fig. 9, and thus without any other fastening the splice plate is held to the rails, and the rails to the splice piece, each mutually supporting and holding the other.

Fig. 7 shows another form of fastening or rather strengthening of the joint, where tongues formed on one rail may slip into loops turned on the adjacent rail, and with a central piece between the loops passing under the end of the next rail; this too forms a good joint support without any detached pieces at all. So too, the splice piece may be made on the end, or rather out of the end of one rail (as at D Fig. 9) and slip into a loop formed on the end of the adj acent rail. This makes a joint support, without separate pieces also, and admits of laying down the track speedily, which is important also in crowded thoroughfares.

But the most important feature of my invention, consists in laying down a rail road track in the streets of cities or towns, rigid and permanent enough for all that is required of it-but slightly elevated above the paved surface of the street, and without digging up the street, as heretofore invariably done, or incommoding the transit through the street.

I-Iaving thus fully described the nature of my invention, what I claim is l. The construction of street rail roads by using the paved surface of the street, as the bed of the railroad, and interposing between the pavement, and the broad flanges of the rails, a plank or line of planking, or other material having more elasticity than the pavement or the iron rail, and thus avoid the digging up of the street, substantially as described.

2. In combination with street rails that are supported upon timber, plank or other elastic material, laid upon the paved surface of the street, the strengthening of the joints of the rails, by one or more tongues which slip into, and are caught and held in, one or more folds or loops, formed in the end of the adjacent rail, and without the use of keys, bolts, rivets, or any other fasten- '-ing than that afforded by the shape of the ends of the rails themselves, as herein described.

ALEXANDER I-IAY. itnesses ROBT. L. TEEL,

JN0. H. JOHNSON. 

